Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing a furious new attack over the treatment of sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier reportedly kept at sea for an unprecedented 250 consecutive days amid the war with Iran.
Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt condemned Hegseth’s leadership during an episode of his The Warning show, accusing the Pentagon chief of breaking a record that no military commander should ever have wanted.
According to Schmidt, the Lincoln has now completed the longest continuous combat operation by an American aircraft carrier without meaningful respite.
“No ship has ever been continuously at sea for 250 days in combat without respite,” Schmidt said.
Follow @allchronologyThat claim has not been accompanied in the source material by an official Navy record confirming the precise historical comparison. But reports about the carrier’s extraordinarily extended deployment have already prompted alarm from lawmakers and family members.
The central issue is not prestige or military endurance.
It is what the deployment may be doing to the thousands of sailors trapped inside an exhausting, dangerous and increasingly unstable environment.
“A United States aircraft carrier is one of the most dangerous places on Earth to work,” Schmidt said. “The pace is relentless.”
Aircraft carriers operate around the clock. Flight-deck crews work among jet engines, spinning rotors, heavy machinery, weapons and fuel. Below deck, sailors maintain nuclear propulsion, electrical systems, communications networks and the countless logistical functions required to keep a floating military city alive.
Even under ordinary circumstances, fatigue can become deadly.
After approximately eight months without a port call, sailors aboard the Lincoln are reportedly confronting deteriorating food, emotional exhaustion and severe psychological strain.
Schmidt cited reports of at least six suicide attempts, including sailors allegedly trying to jump overboard.
The Navy and Pentagon would need to verify the exact number and circumstances of those incidents. Mental-health cases are sensitive, and early reports from families or unnamed sources may be incomplete.
But even a smaller number of attempts would demand urgent scrutiny.
“Human beings are not machines,” Schmidt said.
“And now they are breaking.”
He described the mission as the result of a war launched without adequate planning, accusing senior officials of treating logistics and troop welfare as secondary concerns.
“This is what happens when a war is started by imbeciles without a plan,” Schmidt declared.
“It’s breaking the ship. It’s breaking the sailors, their spirit. It’s breaking their families’ hearts.”
Schmidt reserved his most personal attack for Hegseth, blaming what he called the defense secretary’s “incompetence and buffoonery.”
He also referred to Hegseth as “a drunk.” That characterization is Schmidt’s insult, not an established fact about Hegseth’s condition or conduct in office.
Questions about Hegseth’s past drinking arose during his confirmation process. His former wife and former Fox News colleagues reportedly described concerns about his alcohol consumption, while Hegseth promised senators that he would abstain if confirmed.
No evidence cited here shows that he has consumed alcohol while serving as defense secretary.
The leadership questions surrounding the Lincoln, however, do not depend on proving substance abuse.
Follow @allchronologyHegseth has cultivated an aggressive public image and embraced the title “Secretary of War” following an executive order from President Donald Trump. He has emphasized that the American military exists to do “bad things to bad people.”
Schmidt turned that language back against him.
“None of the sailors are bad people,” he said. “So why is it that bad things are being done to them?”
“Why are they being abused by their leadership through their leadership’s incompetence?”
The contrast became even sharper when Schmidt compared the sailors’ alleged conditions with reports that Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, had received favorable accommodations in federal custody.
The situations are legally and operationally unrelated. But politically, the comparison was designed to ask why convicted offenders might receive careful treatment while service members endure hunger, fatigue and psychological distress.
Trump offered little reassurance when reporters questioned him Friday about the crew’s welfare.
According to Raw Story, the president responded dismissively rather than outlining specific steps to provide relief, rotate personnel or bring the carrier into port.
Hegseth has insisted that every ship, crew and captain receives everything the Pentagon can provide. He has also cited his own deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as evidence that he understands the burden placed on service members.
That answer has not satisfied the growing number of critics demanding an investigation.
The Pentagon must now explain why the Lincoln’s deployment became so prolonged, whether commanders requested a port call, what food and medical resources remain available, and how many sailors have experienced mental-health emergencies.
It must also disclose what operational necessity prevents relief.
Wars place extraordinary demands on military personnel. But endurance cannot become an excuse for treating sailors as expendable equipment.
Follow @allchronologyIf the 250-day figure is confirmed as a Navy record, it should not be celebrated as evidence of toughness.
It should trigger an immediate examination of the decisions that made it necessary.
Hegseth may want history to remember a Pentagon defined by strength and aggression.
Instead, the USS Abraham Lincoln could become the symbol of something else: a leadership team so focused on projecting power that it failed to protect the people carrying out its orders.
